Since 2008, it has been my custom each January 1 (a so-far-15-year tradition) to ascribe to Christine Kane's concept of choosing a Word of the Year to inspire/motivate/give me direction as to the tone/theme of my upcoming 52 weeks/365 days. In retrospect, some of my previous words/phrases have been Release, Create, Let It Go, Health, Light, Follow-Through, Contentment, Forward, Stretch.
With my recent affinity for gardening leading me to Herbalism (which I am fond of calling Kitchen Witchery), my mind has been both blown and soothed at the same time, if that makes a bit of sense... and I landed on the word SAGE, with its many definitions:
~ Wise: as of my 68th birthday this past August, I am officially a Crone, you know... 😉
~ Smudging/clearing: releasing the old/making way for the new
~ Medicinal: I am not only using this particular herb to infuse my water these days (perfect with a few slices of lemon), but one of my first discoveries a year and a half ago in the garden (endless thanks to Claire!) was butterfly pea flower tea (Clitoria ternatea; yes, that’s its real name!); current clinical studies confirm its ability to calm/de-stress, enhance cognitive functions, and alleviate symptoms of numerous ailments including fever, inflammation, pain, and diabetes, not to mention the magical powers of adding lemon to change its vibrant cobalt-blue color to a gorgeous purple... 🌟
I am now the person who saves glass jars to gather and store, not just shiny trinkets as my Crow Brain was previously fond of, but lemon balm and cranberry hibiscus and holy basil (for tea), calendula, African Blue Basil, the aforementioned butterfly pea flowers, and comfrey (for the Bath Tea I have been making). [You would be right in envisioning my dining room table perpetually covered in brown paper bags with an assortment of drying leaves!] I'm even drying seeds of a yellow (Thai) eggplant (from Kathy) and papaya seeds of the dwarf fruit from our Hope Garden to share with volunteers.
Re: the greenery on my third-floor condo catwalk and balcony, I am getting away from growing ornamentals (other than the sentimental gifts of Reba's peace lily, Linda's plumeria, Brian's desert rose, Judi's mom's iris) and concentrating on plants that are edible and/or useful.
These days I feel like Hamnet's wife (in the best possible way... 🌱🌺🌿)
Manifesto for an Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie
1. Everything around you is alive: believe it. Tell stories to stones, sing to trees, start conversations with birds. Build relationships. You’ll never be lonely again.
2. To be fully in your body is to be fully alive. Get out of your head and into the world.
3. Look for the wonder wherever you go. Be all your life, as American poet Mary Oliver suggested, 'a bride married to amazement'.
4. Embrace mystery – don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.
5. Cultivate your mythic imagination: the inner and outer landscape of myth.
6. Know your place. Learn to belong, because wherever you go, there you are. There is nowhere else real to be.
7. Cleave to the local and the ethical. Cultivate community spirit, and autonomy.
8. Slow down.
9. Create. Buy handmade. Live folklorically.
10. Don’t have a career: have a life. Find your calling – but, above all, find your meaning in the community of the world.
11. Foster meaningful ritual; make each day a ceremony, or make a ceremony in each day.
12. Cherish otherness, in all its forms; confront in yourself, and explore, the forms of otherness which make you uncomfortable or afraid.
13. Treasure change: it’s the stuff from which lives are forged. Stop looking for the eternal and immutable, and enter the daily dance with the transitory.
BOOK: The Wild & Weedy Apothecary: An A to Z Book of Herbal Concoctions, Recipes & Remedies, Practical Know-How & Food for the Soul by Doreen Shababy (a Christmas present from my dear friend M)
POEM(S): Holding the Light by Stuart Kestenbaum
for Kait Rhoads
Gather up whatever is
glittering in the gutter,
whatever has tumbled
in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,
for it’s not only our
hearts that are broken,
but the heart
of the world as well.
Stitch it back together.
Make a place where
the day speaks to the night
and the earth speaks to the sky.
Whether we created God
or God created us
it all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world
we are meant to repair
and stitch together
what beauty there is, stitch it
with compassion and wire.
See how everything
we have made gathers
the light inside itself
and overflows? A blessing.
Gathering by Nina Bagley
We are gatherers,
the ones who pick up sticks and stones
and old wasp's nests fallen by the
door of the barn,
walnuts with holes that look like
eyes of owls,
bits of shells not whole but lovely
in their brokeness,
we are the ones who bring home
empty eggs of birds
and place them on a small glass shelf
to keep for what? How long?
It matters not. What matters
Is the gathering,
the pockets filled with remnants
of a day evaporated, the traces of
certain memory, a lingering smell,
a smile that came with the shell.
QUOTE(S): “Herbalism is based on relationship – relationship between plant and human, plant and planet, human and planet. Using herbs in the healing process means taking part in an ecological cycle. This offers us the opportunity consciously to be present in the living, vital world of which we are part; to invite wholeness and our world into our lives through awareness of the remedies being used..." ~ Wendell Berry
"A fool thinks how to spend time; a sage how to use it." ~ Leo Tolstoy
"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." ~ Ray Bradbury
“Plants are a way of life. Using herbs isn’t just about medicine or healing. It’s about breath. Life. About faith, and how to live on this Earth in a more balanced and wholesome way, together. Plants thrive in community. They give out far more than they take in. They are sustainable in every way.” ~ Rosemary Gladstar
